The Enthrallment of an Angel
by KumoriYami
Summary: AU-The Batarians finally did it. They created a weapon so terrifying that the Council has pretty much rolled over. Slavery is now legalized and most militaries are in shambles. When Archangel finds out that one of the Alliance's best has been captured, she's willing to take part in a risky infiltration operation, even if will mean her being sold as slave herself. eventual Shekarian
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So... um... Hi. hope you enjoy this AU story. yea... i got no idea what to write up here today... eventual Shakarian... rated m for the probability of things not being kept at a rated:t level...and stuff in the process of being planned up there... So, i had this idea then I found there was a story that sorta had the same plot that i thought of already in existence, so i went and modified that idea and now i have this... and a sorta "too many ME ideas fanfic ideas" problem, so I'm posting this... working on a third idea now. anyway please review...I really like feedback. :) oh and just in case it wasn't clear, this archangel isn't garrus...

On a side note, I'm still working out finer plot ideas. I'm not sure when I'm going to introduce Garrus... but I have an idea of how...hopefully soon though... and I hate coming up with title names for these stories... may or may not change it in the future...if you have any ideas please. **LET ME KNOW.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Archangel Rising - The Beginning

* * *

Shepard sighed. Her eyes were trying to keep up with the information that was streaming down the large computer screens in front of her. She was tired and angry but at the moment, sitting with some of her only friends in the galaxy helped her as she tried to forget the day's festivities.

The galactic power had violently shifted when the batarians, who had somehow created a weapon of mass destruction of completely unheard of, and unbelievable technology, had fired it at the planet Halegeus, a salarian colony, when the salarians refused to disband the STG and unconditionally surrender to the batarians, as they "did not negotiate with terrorists." In retaliation, the batarians fired their weapon, and it resulted in the destruction of all life on the planet, as well as the removal of two its moons that were caught in the blast. Ultimately, the salarians surrendered and agreed to the batarians' demands then began pushing towards the legalization of slavery within Council space.

It had been a tense day on the Citadel. Shepard remembered her frustration upon hearing the news reports when slavery was legalized. Both the turians and asari had relented to the batarians, even welcoming them as a new-Council race and giving them a seat within the Council. Shepard knew blaming them was pointless though... self-preservation usually triumphed over making nice and the batarians were still harbouring a grudge against humanity for the Skylian Blitz and their expansion in the Kelper Verge.

Most species had agreed to allow slavery, but not humanity... unofficially anyway. The majority of human colonies were relocated so that humanity could still protect their own, but other colonies that were located further away from Alliance-patrolled space, and colonies located further out in the Traverse and the Terminus systems, often found themselves attacked by slavers or pirates... usually resulting no survivors... Since the Systems Alliance lacked their own seat on the Council, they were powerless in the decisions being made within Council space, and they were eventually forced to disband the Alliance by the batarian military. All that was left of the once great Alliance became known as Terra Firma Protection, whose primary focus became protecting its own colonies, and was an overly glorified version of security.

The other races suffered from the same effects, though not as harshly. There were no real changes to the other non-Council races, but salarians became more hostile and there were less and less salarians seen beyond their region of space and it was rumoured that the Special Tasks Group would eventually do something about the batarian menace. Remote asari colonies were encouraged to return to asari space, and if an asari ever went missing, they would have been forgotten. The turians, who had made up most of the galactic peace-keeping force, had to content themselves with busting pirates and illegal slavers, as they slowly began to look down on outer colonies and those with poor social standing – which usually included the majority of those outside turian space and those without colonial markings.

Space travel had also been reduced greatly as security everywhere increased. Sympathisers were reported to have gone missing and smuggling was near impossible with both the turian and batarian military, and Spectres enforcing Council law. Escapees (if there were any) usually ended up in Omega, and either were recaptured or declared missing. The remainder of the _real _Alliance was stationed on Omega and operated mainly out of the mines. It was built up of the hardiest soldiers and some of the highest ranking members of the former Alliance, as well any volunteers from the humans who were captured by the Alliance and granted a safe haven from the slavers and streets of Omega. Although they were technically a group that that didn't exist, they maintained an extremely discreet relation with the Terra Firma Protection and every now and then, the agency would send the Alliance a new recruit who was technically "killed in action" who was either the best of the best, or had important information that needed to be relayed to Admiral Hackett.

* * *

"Commander Shepard." A feminine voice called out to her. "Are you all right?" The asari shifted uneasily in her seat as she turned her attention to her companion to her left who was looking slightly exhausted.

"I'm... all right LIara..." Shepard mumbled. "Just tired... of shooting things...today." The two heard slight laughter coming from behind them. They were sitting in fairly large room with two sofas surrounding a table with Liara's computers set up at the end of the room.

"No kidding Commander..." Ashley Williams flashed a winning smile. "You helped free about a dozen people today... broke up another slave ring... and once again have proved you're one of the only people that you do not want to fuck with on Omega."

Shepard laughed lightly at the comment as Kaiden Alenko rolled his eyes. "Well, it isn't bad to go busting up slave operations on Omega..." He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. "But it certainly does feel good to help the oh-so-mysterious vigilante _Archangel_ with cleaning up this station."

"Tell me about it!" Tali'Zorah stood up with a drink in her hand. "If it weren't for Archangel, I'd probably be dead by now! At least coming to Omega guaranteed that I'd at least reach station before something bad happened unlike that at the Citadel... or Illium!"

Shepard smiled. Her name as Archangel was known to nearly all on Omega. She was a saviour and peacekeeper to the residents, one of the best agents to the Alliance, someone who could be counted on for favours by Aria T'Loak, nuisance to the slavers and pirates operating in the Terminus systems, but more importantly she was one of the small beacons of hope to her friends and allies who trying to do their part in helping out the galaxy. They were all lounging around in their casual clothes and drinking to celebrate Archangel's latest victory, and she to make it even better, she had stolen a bunch of decrypted information from the slavers' captain.

"So, you found anything new today Liara?" Liara was hooked up to Omega's entire network and they used it to coordinate their movements on the station. She was working at becoming an information broker to help the Alliance after an incident that nearly got her captured by batarians. It was strange though. Liara was researching Protheans when the batarians had attacked her and it was only by coincidence that Shepard's crew, which was returning from a mission that took her off Omega, had stopped on the planet after receiving a distress signal.

Liara nodded as she directed everyone's attention to the large screens that were hooked up to her computer. She spoke in a cool and collected voice as images and data ran across the large screens. "The information you obtained this time includes... names and dates of slave auctions... ship names... cargo manifests... identities of prisoners... looks like they're starting to turn slaves into drug addicts to keep them in line..." The room seemed to darken a bit. Kaiden and Ashley had obtained information that hinted to addicting slaves to drugs like red sand to "promote" obedience... "... And new bounties of high-value targets... Oh."

Everyone's eyes were focused on the screens. They were all looking at a list of the most wanted criminals within Citadel space – themselves. Everyone's bounty had gone up significantly, and they were only identified by their aliases and species, but there was a new image attached to Archangel's name. Somehow someone had managed to get a badly captured image of Shepard wielding her sniper rifle. She let out a small sigh of relief as whoever had taken it didn't get an image of her right side. On the right side, her armour was easily identifiable through a small yellow symbol made up of two lines with and what resembled an upside-down triangle – Archangel's symbol. It was easily one of the most recognizable symbols on Omega that all humans and aliens alike, respected or hated with a vengeance. Many of her group's rescues had their own versions of it on their arms and armour. Shepard however, was the only human who bore it on her right arm, while other humans it had it on their left. The symbol represented the justice that she and the Alliance that was brought to the station and wished for the rest of the galaxy, and Shepard didn't want it being slandered by some newscaster. "I'll do what I can to remove that from their databases again... like I did with the last one..." Liara forced a smile.

"Thanks Liara." Shepard turned away from the screens and sat down in the lounging area. "Well I guess I need a new sniper rifle now... and a new set of armour...again. How the hell does someone manage to get a picture of me every time I finally get to liking a set of gear?"

"Well... I suppose that means we'll need to call in a favour from the pirate queen of Omega for some new ones...again..." Ashley gave a sympathetic smile. "You do know there are worse alternatives, skipper."

Liara turned away and shut down the screens. "I'll let you know if I manage to find or learn anything else... and in the meantime... I need a drink." The mood considerably lightened as sat in pulled up a chair. They had only been sitting down for a few minutes when the alarms went off.

* * *

The only time they ever went off was when there were intruders heading towards the mines..."Grab your gear everyone." Shepard ordered as everyone nodded in assent. "Either it's a new package... an intruder... or bad news..."

Shepard was putting on her gear when her omni-tool pinged and turned on the audio. "Commander Shepard." The admiral was sounding more tired than usual. "Today's codes are Jon Grissom, and Elysium."

"Understood, admiral... but are we expecting anyone?" Usually guests were members of the Alliance... or the Terra Firma Protection...and the occasional the bearer of extremely bad news... but they usually knew someone was coming beforehand... so anyone coming without prior knowledge smelt of trouble. Occasionally, it would be someone who was told to head toward Omega's mines by Aria, who she believed that had information important to the Alliance or needed sanctuary. Tali was one of the Alliance's latest guests granted asylum after they found that she had an unusual recording of a conversation, captured by a geth, although they hadn't been seen beyond the Veil within the past 300 years, between three individuals, and was being hunted for it. The conversation had been heavily encrypted and Tali spent most of her free time working on analyzing the message. Since then, she had proven herself to be a valuable member of Archangel's team.

"Not to my knowledge... contact me if they give a name or you suspect they have information... I'll leave you to your methods...but expect the worst. Hackett out." Shepard and her team had come to expect the worst every single day on Omega after fighting at the station for so long. Her team was also one of the only few groups that interacted with outsiders on the station to minimize human presence as much as possible, since it couldn't be known or suspected that the Alliance was biding its time.

* * *

Shepard met her team at the lowest entrance. Anyone coming into the mines would have to take a certain not actually deactivated elevator up to even come close to the labyrinth of darkness that eventually led to the mines' entrance. Just outside the elevator's exit was a small lit area where one's fate was determined... Everyone had their guns trained at the area as Shepard stepped into the light. Whoever was coming, was coming soon... and making their way up the elevator.

A lone figure stepped out into the light. If it was a batarian, everyone would shoot on sight, no questions asked, but this was a human... female. The Alliance made it a habit to wear headgear, but this location was the only exception. Most humans didn't take kindly to having guns pointed towards them by masked individuals. Shepard had her gun pulled out and directed at the intruder's face. There were definitely more people in the elevator, as she gave Kaiden and Ashley a small nod to focus their attention on the woman's companions. Shepard refocused her attention towards the woman. She had blond hair and blue eyes and was most definitely older than her. "Identify yourself, state your intentions, or you will unfortunately be shot. Make any sudden moves, and we will be forced to shoot you."

The woman gave a small nod. "He'd told me to expect you..." The woman raised her hands into the air slowly, surrendering. "My name is Kahlee Sanders... I have a message from David Anderson... and I believe the code words today are Jon Grissom... and Elysium..." She smiled weakly as Shepard lowered her gun and told her companions to do the same. "There's been a problem..." Kahlee waved to her companions as they stepped into the light. There was a krogan, a bald woman decorated in tattoos, and another woman but she was wearing a black hood. "I need to see Admiral Hackett... and these individuals... are with me."

Shepard nodded as she hid the surprise beneath her poker face. She, and by extension, the Alliance, hadn't heard from Anderson in months... "I'll need you and your companions to surrender your weapons to my team for security's sake if you want to see the Admiral." Kahlee nodded as waved over to her companions as Shepard's own teammates did the same and took their weapons. The krogan however, seemed reluctant to hand his shotgun over to a human. Shepard smiled and turned his attention to him. "You do not want me to come over there and head butt you."

The krogan flashed a large smile and let out a laugh as he handed his weapons over to Ashley. "You've got a quad human... I like that."

Shepard rolled her eyes as she activated her radio. "Admiral, you have some visitors. A woman named Kahlee Sanders and her companions... My team will be escorting them to you now." She turned her attention over to Kahlee and her companions. "Follow me."

* * *

After about a twenty-minute walk, Shepard and her team escorted Kahlee and her companions towards the upper levels of the mine to a small room that was referred to by everyone as the conference centre. The room was fairly large and the tables were set up in a in a circle formation. Hackett was sitting at the opposite end when Shepard's party arrived.

"Admiral Hackett..." Kahlee saluted the elderly man before she pulled up a chair and motioned for her companions to do the same as Shepard's team leaned agains the walls. "I wish we could be seeing each other under better circumstances..."

"Agreed... but it's nice to know that you're alive..." Hackett brought his hand over to his chin and gave the impression of one in deep thought. "...But we both know that you'd only risk contact if something big came up..."

Kahlee nodded silently and nodded to one of her companions – the woman who was pretty much wearing nothing above her waist but tattoos. "... Jack and I managed to escape but I think they sent that turian spectre after us again..." Her voice trailed off.

"Every freaking time we end up doing something, or attempt to contact the turian resistance, that asshole always finds us..." Jack growled, "I swear to god if I ever see him again I will fucking rip his face off." Her biotics were flaring as she spoke.

"Wait, you mentioned something about Captain Anderson?" Ashley interjected, hoping that Jack would not go making things float around. "You said you had a message from him Ms. Sanders..."

"David...He... got caught when we tried to contact the turian resistance..."Both Jack and Kahlee hung their heads. "We were being followed by a turian spectre..." She pulled out her omni-tool, clicked a few buttons, then a broken message played.

"_S-fzt, he's might be on to us, Ka-shrk- i'll do my best to –fshh- him off... Hierarchy is going to start coming after –shrnk!- theif's –zztt- need to contact resistance.. get to Hack-zzzz- and promise me you'll stay safe..." _

The conference room was silent for a moment when Jack slammed her fists against the table. "Someone tipped that bastard off..." She sighed as her biotics died down. "Dammit... that should have been me."

"Anderson probably wouldn't have forgiven himself he allowed you and Ms. Sanders to get captured..." Kaiden sighed. "He's always been willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good... and he probably didn't want to blame himself for getting you either shipped to prison... or worse..."

Shepard smiled. Kaiden usually knew what to say in these situations. "In the worst case scenario, whoever wanted to capture you three either suspected or knew about the Alliance... and in the best case: he was capturing a known fugitive who had left the Terra Firma Protection who has a bounty on his head for the attempt and success of freeing countless slaves..." Hackett nodded at the ideas as she continued. "But our priorities now should be locating Anderson... contacting the turian resistance... and find that thief he mentioned..." It would be difficult to find Anderson... Anderson, like everyone on her squad was on the Citadel's most wanted list, and if he were captured, it was very likely he would either end up in a high secuirity turian prison, or being sold off as a slave to some batarian warlord or some xenophobic turian who harboured a grudge for the First Contact War to be put through countless forms of torture. If that were the case, it would be easier and less risky to contact the turian resistance, though they operated within Council space and rarely sent agents into the Terminus systems...

"I guess that's my cue..." The woman wearing the hood spoke up. "I'm Kasumi... Kasumi Goto. I'm the best thief in what's left of the galaxy...and I'm doing my best to make sure I'm not the most famous..." Her voice trailed off. "Anyway, Anderson contacted me and my... former partner, Keiji Okuda. He had hired us to obtain information from what's left of the STG...regarding that batarian super weapon..."Kasumi shook her head. "The information is encrypted into my partner's greybox... and when he was killed... the turian military took his greybox. The only plus side is that no one can access the information without my greybox, but since I was at Keiji's side when he died, the turians are convinced that I have the key and have pushed for the Council to declare me wanted criminal...and as a result I've been forced to go into hiding... but not before I managed to hook up with Kahlee's group."

"We were trying to find Kasumi when she found us after she investigated why we were looking for her." Kahlee let out a small laugh. "And she managed to convince Wrex here to serve as a bodyguard..."

"Urdnot Wrex..." Tali looked over at Shepard. Stories of his adventures have even reached the flotilla..." She shot a look over to Shepard. "He's the best of the best, a battlemaster, and the easily most recognizable krogan in the galaxy..."

Shepard nodded. "So. Wrex. What does a krogan want with a nonexistent organization? Or do you want something from the most wanted yet unidentifiable humans, quarian and asari in the galaxy?" Krogan were known to takes jobs for a challenge, but it was unusual for a krogan battlemaster to agree to providing security without some sort of ulterior motive.

"Haha. True. I wouldn't agree to doing any sort of bodyuard business unless I got the chance to see the infamous _Archangel._" The krogan shrugged as Shepard's eyes narrowed. He obviously knew who she was... "Moving on... I want what's best for the krogan people and I've heard some chatter about backroom alliances being made to take down have the batarian warlords overthrown... and I want in but I need a favour."

Admiral Hackett and Shepard's team were shocked. Archangel's identity was known only to her team and a few of her superiors and close firneds, and only a few select individuals had ties to the STG or the turian resistance, and even fewer had spoken of taking down the batarian Hegemony to bring back peace to the galaxy...Other than that, there were no traces of alliances between the three races...

Shepard was about to speack when Hackett raised his hand. "What exactly do you need Wrex? Commander Shepard is legally dead within Council space while Archangel is a valued member of the Alliance as she plays a vital part in helping human escapees and covering up our operations on Omega. For you to request her assistance... I will need a little more information than what you've given before we can simply let one of our best operatives work with a krogan mercenary without a good reason and an accurate assessment of the danger, and if it isn't good enough..." The admiral's eyes gazed over to Shepard and her team, then narrowed in on the krogan. "Dead men tell no tales."

"I take all my secrets to the grave..." Wrex grinned and gave out a hearty laugh. "I pulled in a favour with some high ranking C-sec officer to get information on Commander Shepard when she was declared a threat to "galactic secuirity" or at least to the batarians... I wanted to tangle with humanity's best myself..." He let out a loud disapointed sigh. "But then a short while later I heard some spectres had blown you up and you were dead...and somehow when I ended up on Omega for some jobs when I found Archangel." He let out another laugh again. "You shot me a few times when you were busting up some guys... and let's just say I have my own ways to figuring out her identity... as well as some of the Alliance's... Anyway, I'd like Shepard's assistance with getting rid of a certain warlord." He pulled out his omni-tool and hit a few buttons as the image of a krogan materialized. "Warlord Okeer is creating an army of krogan and is somehow bypassing the effects of genophage."

Ashley raised her brow at that. "Um, isn't that a good thing? I mean I thought that the krogan wanted a cure."

"True, but I'm going to kill him and take anything he has of value." He snarled. "Before Okeer disapeared, he experimented on a few females... They all died because of him." He stood up and slammed his fists together. "Their blood demands his death."

Shepard nodded in understanding as Kaiden turned to her with a face of mixed emotions. "Shepard, this is Archangel's call. How do you to do this?"

"We'll probably end up doing this, Kaiden... but one thing Wrex... if it was just killing a krogan, you wouldn't need our help..."

"The problem I have with him... is this." Wrex hit some more buttons on the omni-tool and another face appeared. A turian. Shepard raised an eyebrow immediately and Jack shot up out of her chair. "Saren Arterius."

"That's the bastard who got Anderson!" Her biotics were flaring up again.

Wrex snorted as he focused on Shepard. "Okeer is breeding his army for _him._... and is technically under his protection on the planet Korlus..." Tali and Liara groaned as they heard the planet's name. Korlus was a known mercenary training ground and what made it worse was that the planet was within the Atican Traverse, Council space. "Which is why I'd like Archangel to come, given the commander's previous experience with him..."

Shepard studied the Saren's image closely. She didn't know who he was until now. All she knew was that this spectre was a ruthless killing machine who had taken down Anderson and inadvertedly allowed her to fake her own death. "Fine we'll do it." She headed toward the room's entrance as the room fell silent. "Liara, you are staying here with Kasumi. Found out everything you can about her partner's greybox. Kasumi help Liara and give her as much information as you can about the squadron that was hunting you down. With luck, you can narrow down where the greybox was taken." The two woman nodded and Shepard glanced over at Hackett. He was going to approve of this mission. "Ash, you and Kaiden go do a weapon's check on our gear and make sure everything is prepped within an hour. Tali, I want you to create some hacking program or something to extract data from omni-tools in case we do encounter Saren." She honestly hoped though that they wouldn't. The three saluted Shepard as they all left to complete their assigned tasks. "Jack you wanna come? We could use another biotic since Liara's benched."

"Hell yeah." Jack excitedly got up. "I'll do an amp check then find the others... they still have my shotgun..." She headed out the door and glanced over at Shepard. "Thanks."

Shepard let out a large sigh. They still needed a ship that could get them to Korlus that didn't fly Alliance blue...and if she asked Aria for a ship to borrow it would end up with her doing more favours that she was not looking forward to. "Wrex do you have a ship?"

"That won't be necessary commander." Shepard turned to Admiral Hackett with a slight smile on his face. He nodded to Kahlee who was also smiling.

"I'm giving you the Normandy. Its... was... Anderson's ship. He always meant for you to have it."

She could hardly contain her surprise. "The Normandy SR1?" It was the last ship that anyone would ever expect, and was rumoured to have disapeared, gone missing, and destroyed more than several times. It was also forgotten symbol of what races could accomplish if they worked together...

The admiral stood up and handed Shepard a datapad. "Take who you need. This mission, and Archangel require the best." Shepard immediately looked and began to study the available crew list. "She's all yours Commander. Good luck."

* * *

Oh and this is the longest chapter I've _EVER _posted. So... don't expect long ones all the time...sorry!

And I didnt really edit this... much. so... tell me if you spot any errors.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Whenever I get a review or find out I'm being followed I seem to be reduced to state of a giggling schoolgirl for some strange reason... anyways thanks for reading and i'll *try* to do better when editing... sorta... not really...it's about 4:15 in the morning and im wide awaken...

it's sort of annoying when you keep coming up with ideas that you want to type out then finding out that your computer is not working at optimal capacity... so im typing on my tablet and it is extremely annoying how the screen keeps shifting...

Oh and I sorta just remembered that if an asari and a human female were both in full gear and armour, you wouldn't be able to identify which species they were, so I've made the changes accordingly...

* * *

Chapter 2: Yes, I know it's an extremely bad and horrible idea, but it's the only real chance we've got.

* * *

"NO NO NO! They did not give you the Normandy!" The Normandy was a phantom ship and a pilot's dream. It had stealth technology that allowed it to go along undetected even in Council space... Whereas usually any unregistered ship ended up being attacked or boarded by law enforcement or military operatives enforcing the law. It was hard for any fugitive to navigate within the strictly monitored space...

"I was there. They gave her that ship." The krogan let out a laugh as he joined Shepard and her flabbergasted friend in the mess hall. She had just under an hour to work out the one issue she had with the Normandy's crew.

Shepard rolled her eyes at her ecstatic friend. "It's okay if you don't believe me Joker... guess I'll have to find some other pilot to put her through her paces..." Jeff "Joker" Munroe was technically a member of Archangel's team but given how the team was usually grounded, he hardly saw any action.

"Wait what commander? Are you shitting me? You want me to-" Joker shut himself up as he stood up and gave the most solemn salute ever. "Understood, commander, and thank you."

"I need my best pilot..." Shepard returned his salute and smiled. "And last time I checked you're still the best pilot there is..."

* * *

"Commander, ETA to Korlus is 6 hours, unless you wanna try out the Normandy's fancy experimental drive core..."

Shepard rolled her eyes as Joker's voice came over the intercom. She had specifically told him they were not going to make an FTL jump unless it was an emergency. She turned her attention to her team, Jack and Wrex, who were sitting in the conference room that was built into the Normandy. "Okay so Archangel is going to Korlus to confront a warlord, and there is a possibility of spectre Saren Arterius showing up..." She gave an exasperate sigh. "Anyone have anything else to add?"

"Mm... we'll probably have about an hour and a half, tops before the authorities arrive..." Kaiden was looking over the mission summary.

"Not that that'll matter..." Jack smiled with anticipation in her eyes. "Course I'm perfectly fine with getting rid of some idiots who're dumb enough come after us... more for me..."

Tali shook her head as she turned to her right to face Shepard. They were sitting right next to each other. "I finished that program that you asked for. Don't know if it'll actually work but... it's better than nothing."

Shepard nodded and positioned her left arm so that Tali could install the program onto her omni-tool. "If this works, maybe we'll be able to get more information for the Alliance..." She turned to Wrex. "Speaking of which, Wrex... How did you know about the alliances with the underground resistance movements?"

Ashley spoke up. "It's not like we actually need a krogan on our side you know...and you seem a little too eager to join up with the Alliance."

Wrex nodded at that. "I'm technically not allowed to give anyone but Archangel any details but...you're her team so I guess it's okay..." He was speaking significantly quieter now. "The turian resistance hired me to contact the Alliance... they need help with something... wouldn't tell me what though."

Ashley frowned at that. "The turians? As in all krogan and turians don't actually get along ever since the Krogan Rebellions and their role for the genophage?"

"Yup... Most people would never think of a krogan accepting a job from a turian... so it's ideal... but when it comes to it, the krogan are not happy that a power mad alien race has the power to sentence a whole planet to death." Shepard's omni-tool beeped as Tali finished the installation. "Anyway, in the case of Saren not showing up, he's probably going to have one of his lackeys in the military or C-Sec send someone to investigate... and depending on whom they send, we can use Archangel's reputation to lure him to Omega... and we think of something from there."

"You know Wrex... my team has a reputation to uphold... we usually don't leave any evidence behind..."

The krogan smiled as he left the room, leaving her to figure out what to do. "Think of it as a challenge."

They had to somehow feed bread crumbs to an unknown pursuer they did not have at the moment... "Jack how good are you at not destroying surveillance cameras?"

"Pretty bad. Why?"Jack was the only one without full body armour or a helmet that could hide her features...

"You're going to purposely not destroy one then get yelled for not following orders properly, then yell at me for yelling at you and yell you'd rather have this conversation back on Omega..." Shepard paused for a moment. This would give the impression that Jack was a new member of team to an observer... "Then half-say my alias before destroying the camera, right before we proceed with taking out Okeer and taking whatever he's got before we blow up his base."

"So the assumption is that if they send anyone decent enough, they'll be able to find this information to track us to Omega?" Tali crossed her arms. "By the way Jack, how wanted and "well-known" are you? We tend to refer to each other by code names when we're not at in a secure area, for well, secrecy."

"I vote her code-name be..." Kaiden stood up and spread his arms slowly apart as if he were admiring his work. "Psychotic biotic."

"You did not just say that!" Ashley could hardly contain her laughter as Jack got up and walked over to attempt to slug Kaiden in the face. "But it's true Jack. We need something to call you when we're in the field that isn't your name, and Kaiden... that's too long... For the record though, I'm Alpha, Shepard's Archangel, Jeff's Joker... Tali's Theta and Kaiden... is Kappa."

"Kappa? Really?"Jack stopped her fist an inch away from Kaiden's nose.

"Yep. Shepard gave us our code names when well..." The quarian tilted her head as she were remembering something. "When we had to ask Aria for a favour and were actually there."

"Not helping Ash..." He rolled his eyes. "And I insist that you refer to me as K. PLEASE."

"That's cool kappa," Jack slapped the biotic's shoulder and grinned. "I'll go with Zero... for now."

Shepard nodded. "Okay so here's how we're going to handle the mercs..."

* * *

Several hours later, an unhappy turian was on his way to Korlus and going over the reports. A krogan warlord, Okeer, had been murdered, his facility laid in ruins, Saren Arterius was not happy that Okeer was dead, and something had been stolen from the facility. Apparently, a bunch of identified mercenaries had launched an attack at the base with the sole intention of taking Okeer out, and they had blown up the base when they were finished.

Officer Garrus Vakarian sighed. Whoever had pulled off this job slightly impressed him. They had managed to accomplish whatever their mission was, and blow up the facility once they were done with it to remove traces of their presence. He shook his head as he cast away the unnecessary thought. If they were professionals there would be following probably following a certain M.O., and if they were hired help...it would be likely that they wouldn't have covered all their tracks.

He was slightly happy as he had been pulled from his other assignments to investigate what had caused a well known Spectre to lose his temper. He admired the Spectres and their efficiency but, much to his annoyance, and although his current position in the military and a high ranking C-sec officer had granted him nearly the same freedom as a Spectre, Garrus usually tended to things by the book as his father, now retired, had taught him everything he knew and more. Nowadays, Officer Garrus Vakarian was was known to get the job done with minimal casualties and was completely willing to resort to any means necessary to get the job done at times.

This assignment to investigate Okeer's facility was his good idea of a break from his slightly tedious assignments from C-Sec and the military. He had been tasked with writing several letters of condolences to family members of the batarian Hegemony as the bodies of their loved ones – legal and somewhat respectable slavers, were found dead on their ship that was supposedly returning from Omega after recapturing some of escapees; apprehending those who had stolen or withheld Prothean technology or research from the Council, investigating the kidnapping of a Matriarch's daughter who had been researching Protheans at the time of her disappearance although the case was several months old and various resources had been called in to locate her, dealing countless missing or stolen property reports from various asari, turian and batarians who had suspected their slaves had made it to Omega, and to obtain clues and leads that would lead to the capture of wanted criminals. It was a long list of assignments, but he had a job and he was going to do it right... He would seek out criminals and bring down the full force of the law upon them... whoever his targets were would eventually face the full extent of the law and justice...

* * *

Garrus' mandibles twitched slightly when he was investigating the wreckage. The smell of death was everywhere... There were a lot of bodies outside the Okeer's facility. Mainly mercenaries and krogan... an awful lot of krogan at that. It was rare to see so many krogan in one place unless you were in the Krogan DMZ... Garrus wasn't one to question the actions of his superiors or a respected Spectre but it did seem odd for an ancient krogan warlord who was well hated by his own kind, to be working for a Spectre to have access to so many krogan. He had examined a several bodies and from what he could gather, among his targets there was at least one biotic user, and individuals who were proficient with shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles. His eyes glanced over at another dead merc. He had been shot cleanly through the head. Whoever shot him was most definitely an expert with a sniper rifle as there was absolutely no collateral damage...

Garrus eventually made his way to what was left of Okeer's facility. Whoever he was pursuing had made sure that they destroyed most of the facility... He carefully entered the building and made his way over to a security terminal which was barely running and it looked like someone had smashed through the its screen. He hooked up his omni-tool and took the data before it shut down. Garrus closely examined the data. Apparently Okeer was working on overcoming the effects of the genophage... and breeding a massive amount of krogan in an effort to do so... It made sense for him to turn to Saren for protection... the salarians though they hardly involved themselves in Council business anymore, along with the asari both maintained that the genophage should not be cured. His omni-tool pinged as it decrypted more of the terminal's broken information. None of Okeer's files or work remained at the facility, nor was there any hint that anything else had been taken from the facility and the only thing left to go over were the security videos. If he was lucky his targets may have missed a camera at one point and there would hopefully be some footage...

He headed back to his ship, deciding to go over the footage later. It would still take him omni-tool some time to decrypt all of the data.

* * *

Shortly after the turian left the planet and began set a course for the mass relay in the system, his omni-tool pinged again. He made his way to his quarters and grabbed a glass of water as he started playing the videos. He had skimmed over a good hour of footage before the facility was overwhelmed with chaos. He watched the videos closely. Nearly all the feeds had died at the exact same time, while one had miraculously survived. The last feed he was watching was of a tattooed woman storming into the room. She was still glowingly slightly as another figure, completely armoured followed her.

_"Dammit Zero I TOLD you! You're supposed to stick to the damn plan! All we have to do was-!" _Based on the armoured individual's body type and gear, she was most likely either a human female or an asari, and her demanour placed her as the leader of the group that had attacked the facility.

"_Screw your plan! All we had to do was get in and blow the damn thing up after we finished this freaking job!"_

"_Zero-!" _

_"I am not listening to this bullshit now. You can yell at me all you want when we get back to Omega," _Her biotics were flaring up again. "_And quit telling me what to do __Arc-"_At this point, the video died, but it had given Garrus what he wanted – a lead in the general direction.

He recognized tattooed woman, Jack he recalled. She was wanted for creating a crater in one of the hanar colonies' moons, the destruction of several prison facilities, escaping for slavers, attacking colonies... He heard that she had gone into hiding but what really bothered him was that she was working with a group and had mentioned "_Arc-."_ The only one on the Council's most wanted list who had an alias like that was Archangel... Archangel was known to take jobs every now and then inside Council space but usually was for human interests, so the attack on Korlus was highly irregular, and with a possible new recruit. Garrus knew that she usually didn't take a job for credits so undoubtedly the reason for her assignment was something that demanded her attention...but it still struck him as odd how there was actual video survellaince. Archangel wasnt't known to slip up but maybe it was because she had recruited a new member for her team...or maybe she wanted someone to follow her... Garrus mused at the thought. If that was the case, he would ensure that she'd be biting off more than she could chew...

Garrus fiddled with the ship's communication console as he set a course toward Omega. It beeped after the connection was established. "Spectre Kyrik."

"Garrus," the turian at the other end sounded slightly surprised to be getting a call from him. "Got a new lead on what's pissed Saren off so badly or do you need something else?"

"Both actually... I have a lead on who took down Okeer, so I was wondering if you could... well..." His voice was starting to trail off.

"Contact your superiors in the military as well as C-Sec to let them know you're taking a very long vacation?"

"Yes, please."

"Business or pleasure?"

"Please Nihlus... this is me we're talking about. It's always business."

* * *

A week had gone by since the mission on that time, Liara and Kasumi had narrowed down Keiji's greybox's location to Cipritine on Palaven, and Wrex had mentioned that his contractor had informed him that David Anderson was indeed still alive and most likely on at a turian or batarian prison facility awaiting trial, but his current civil standing was unknown. It was common knowledge if someone was reduced to a slave from a "terrorist", they would be treated worse than garbage nearly 100 percent of the time, but if they were in Council space, Council laws prevented their owners from killing them... but didn't require them to ensure their well being. But if Anderson was being as a prisoner... Both turian and batarian prisons had a reputation for getting their prisoners killed after their captors were finished with them to save resources unless they could possibly used as leverage, and David Anderson was most definitely someone who could be used as leverage against the Alliance...

During the week Shepard spent most of her time doing odd jobs from Aria for the Alliance and killing mercs on the station who were engaging in criminal activities. She appreciated how on Omega finding criminals was easy. All she had to do was point her gun and shoot. She also spent time getting to know more about Jack as a member of her team and the woman's biotics proved to be an enormous asset to her team. Halfway into the week Liara had reported several persons of interests had landed on Omega. Usually it was the odd salarian with a history in the STG looking for information from Aria, some well-known slaver or mercenary, the occassional and odd undercover cop or Spectre... Kasumi and Shepard both shadowed the potential threats, but none seemed to have an extraordinary or too classified background. Things should have been normal, but Shepard couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her...

Eventually, Shepard had enough and decided that if Liara couldn't locate her mysterious stalker, she'd pay a visit to Aria...

* * *

She walked into Afterlife wearing simple clothes - jeans and a black tank top and a simple mask that covered her mouth and nose. Shepard nearly always left her arms remained exposed as her tattoo always drew attention. Most of the asari strippers at the club assumed she was Archangel's handler or a member of the vigilante's team and occasionally let their thoughts slip when they were around their patrons on more than one occasion. Whenever that happened, it usually resulted in the death or injury of some unlucky bastard who had attacked her or attempted to capture her. Her identity as "Commander Shepard" was dead though her civilian alias "Alison Gunn," also attracted some attention. Gunn was apparently the person you would go to if you had absolutely needed to contact Archangel with a job or information, though most cases were wholly ignored. Gunn also made it a habit to purchase information every now and then concerning some events in Council space. She was supposedly a hand to hand combat specialist, good with a pistol, and nearly every slaver and pirate knew had wanted her for her information and connection to the elusive vigilante...

As soon as she had walked up to the bar, Shepard frowned. Whoever was following Archangel's activities had done his research on Alison and her possible relationship to the vigilante... Shepard could still feel herself being watched as she grabbed a drink before heading to Aria's private quarters.

"Aria." Shepard watched as Aria's right hand man, batarian, Bray shifted uneasily as she entered the room. Although Shepard trusted none of Aria's henchmen, she knew she could count on them to keep their mouths shut lest they bring forth the wrath of Omega upon themselves. The only batarian in existence that she might have trusted would be Bray because his loyalties lied to Aria and Shepard had had the unpleasant experience of working with him and ended up saving his life.

"So it's Alison Gunn this time. Interesting." The asari motioned for her to join her on couch. "I assume your here because of Archangel?"

Shepard nodded as she sat down. There was a high chance that she knew if someone on the station was looking for her. No one, absolutely no one, showed up on Omega without declaring their intentions lest they wanted to bring forth the pirate queen's wrath. "She's been being followed lately... and isn't entirely sure by who..." Shepard glanced over her should and examined Afterlife's main area. "I've felt someone spying on me too.. and very recently at that..."

"I guess whoever they sent this time is actually good..." A smile crept up on the asari's lips. "Word on the street is that he's looking for the leader of the team who blew up the Korlus facility... and the one who had successfully attracted the attention of every single merc group on Omega..." Shepard frowned at that. It had been their intention to use the incident to draw out someone's attention but they really didn't want someone exceptional. "But I have something that will be of more interest to your boss far more than one agent..."

Aria glanced over to her guards in the room and nodded her head in the direction of the door. They all nodded as they left Shepard alone with their boss. "So what demands my attention?" Shepard was slightly curious. Aria never emptied the room unless it was work she wanted the Alliance - meaning Archangel, to do, or it involved extremely sensitive information.

"I might as well tell you that the one following you around is a high ranking military Blackwatch operative and one of C-Sec's best agents..." Aria slowly crossed her arms. "I must say... that turian does set a good impression...and he's quite good with tech, given that your asari hasn't been able to find him..."

"What do you mean by that?" She leaned forward expectantly. Liara hadn't been able to find any noteworthy turians on Omega...

"Oh, he just waltzed in and dropped a bunch of information regarding an event a month from now... and said that he would be hanging around until he either found Archangel or some clues to lead him to her identity...He's most likely calling you out." Aria tossed a datapad to Shepard. "I was going to tell you about it next week...but anyway, some members of the Hegemony have negotiated to use a wing on Omega for a slave auction... I've made an arrangement with them to keep Archangel off Omega during that time period...until their event is over." Shepard's brow twitched. That would mean she would be free to take whatever action she deemed necessary as soon as the auction was over... "That datapad contains the station's schematics in that wing... as well as the name list and number or prisoners expected to be sold off...mostly pleasure slaves and professional asari strippers, some mercenaries with extremely long records... you know, the usual bunch of idiots who allowed themselves to get captured...the slavers themselves are looking to draw out Archangel for either revenge or glory, as well as make some credits.."

Shepard examined the datapad. She recognized a few of the last names listed... she and her team had killed others bearing those names... "So I assume that turian operative will be there?" Aria shrugged at that. She just needed Archangel to not cause trouble during the a two-day auction next month... "Hmh. Thanks for the information I guess..."

"Oh and _Ms. Gunn... _Bray can get you inside the auction. Not that you'll like how... he has insisted that he find a way to pay you back for saving his life... and I suppose I do since he'd be hard to replace..."

Shepard nodded as she headed towards the door. She knew what method was referring to... "I'll think about it..."

* * *

Garrus' eyes narrowed as soon as the human female exited Aria's private room. He had making a half-hearted attempt to act as though he had been drinking at the bar for a while to appear less suspicious, and trying especially hard not to tip "Alison Gunn" off in any way... He needed to confront the woman and uncover her relationship with Archangel, though Aria had probably informed her that he was following her though she most likely didn't give his name. He had spent the last week coming through Omega and questioning anyone he could about Archangel. Nearly everyone he had attempted to speak to about Archangel had refused to give any information on the mysterious figure and only stated how she had either changed or saved their lives for the better. In the end, he only received information from some asari mercenaries who had not been killed by Archangel after they had attempted to free some asari slaves, a few turians who had being harassed by krogan and saved by the vigilante, and a quarian who had his suit punctured during a firefight when Archangel was in the middle of breaking up a drug operation, who she had stayed with to apply medical attention. Apparently Archangel's unidentifiable team did include a quarian and a human biotic male, there was at least four females - two of them biotics if he counted Zero.

Garrus watched silently as the woman walk out of Afterlife with a datapad in her hand. He was fairly sure that this was indeed Alison Gunn. It was fairly easy to identify her as she headed towards the lower markets of Omega...and there were no visible humans on the station. He slowly left his seat and exited the bar to shadow the woman. His target had black hair, brown eyes and a yellow tattoo over her right arm. He recognized that as Archangel's symbol... It wasn't possible to compare Alison to Archangel though... He didn't exactly have knowledge of her physical profile...

His target was walking through the lower market areas of Omega. She had purchased some basic supplies - weapon mods, some bottles of water and levo and dextro food...dextro food? Unless humans could suddenly ingest dextro based foods that was something that definitely caught his attention. The woman was talking with the shopkeepers about the latest news and Archangel... she also asked if anyone had been investing the vigilante... He had to admit, it was slightly interesting to watch. He hardly any chances to observe humans that weren't captured or dead, and during his time on Omega, this was the first human that he had seen, and she stood out... After a show time, she left the markets, Garrus wasn't entirely sure if she had spotted him but he noticed her tense up... He was following her into the Gozu District when she turned a corner. The turian waited a few moments before following her and turned the corner. The human was gone...

"Damn..."

* * *

Shepard groaned as she crawled through the ducts in the Gozu District after getting a glimpse of her stalker. She had a various supplies that her team needed and she hadn't even finished gathering the information she needed from her various contacts regarding her mysterious pursuer. All she knew was that he wore a modified visor, and blue and black armour from her encounter, and the store keepers had only told her that he had been asking around about Archangel. Judging from their short encounter, he was fairly good at hiding his presence and reconnaissance, and Aria had informed her that he was supposedly good with tech...and he wanted her information on Archangel...

Shepard eventually made it back to the Alliance headquarters and immediately headed straight to Liara's room. She was watching the video feeds around the station and Ashley and Wrex were sitting in the lounging area. "Shepard, I..."

Shepard smiled as she shook her head. "I know you did your best Liara, and besides, you can't watch everything at once. You're not the Shadow Broker."

Ashley nodded gravely as Shepard took a seat and dumped her supplies over the table and handed Aria's datapad to Liara. "So what happened skipper? We couldn't see you on the monitors after you headed to the markets... and I know you mentioned that you felt like you were being watched over this past week..."

"Turian Blackwatch operative... at least that's what Aria said.. Whoever he is... he's good." Shepard sighed. Blackwatch operatives were tasked in keeping Palaven safe. Was there a reason why one was on her tail? Archangel had never done anything that could have remotely put Palaven in danger... was it Saren who had wanted Archangel hunted down for revenge? As a Spectre, Saren did have enough influence in the turian military to have a Blackwatch operative mobilized to investigate whoever had taken out Okeer and destroyed his facility...

"Even I know that it's not a good idea to draw the Blackwatch's attention..." Wrex sounded slightly amused. "Why does Shepard get all the fun?"

Liara stood up as her eyes widened. "Fun? You have a strange idea of fun, Wrex. I mean, you considered Shepard waking up a tank grown krogan 'EXCITING.'"

"Well now you have a new and powerful asset for your team who most likely would have been helping Saren if he was woken up by Okeer... and it's not probably not a great idea for me to wake up a baby pyjak... might have gone and killed him."

Ashley rolled her eyes. "At least Grunt doesn't care what we do as long as he gets enemies to tear apart in the field...

Liara nodded. "And he will hopefully prove to be an asset to us in the future as his background and history are completely unknown by all... besides Spectre Arterius..."

"Grunt is probably the real reason why Saren's unhappy... other than the fact that he was getting an army of krogan..." Shepard's eyes slightly narrowed. "Anyway, Aria gave me the details to a certain event on that datapad, and my mysterious stalker has told her that he'd be showing up to try to take down Archangel... and as usual, Archangel has not been invited to attend..."

At this point, Kaiden entered the lounge to join them. "By not invited that just means until the event is over right?" He smiled slightly. "Well I guess it's the same as usual. If there are people that need rescuing or help, our responsibility and duty to the Alliance and humanity says that we can't just hide every time someone's following us again."

Shepard nodded in understanding. She did not like staying idle as people were being condemned to a life of servitude in any way. "Well that brings me to our next point of business...We need to get to Anderson but the only prison facilities that the batarians are known to use are the ones on Khar'shan... and Aratoht... and if he's being held by the turians... he'll probably be at Cipritine... and we need to secure Kasumi's greybox which is on Cipritine."

"Well if the turian operative is such a great Blackwatch operative, if one of us allows us to get captured by him, he'll probably take him or her to Cipritine's facility... from there, if we use some sort of tracking device, we can simply follow them with the Normandy." Ashley handed the datapad to Kaiden. "All we need to do is let one of Archangel's operative to get caught at the auction in a month... or they get inside the auction and well... y'know..."

Shepard's expression visibly darkened. They all knew how risky it was to surround oneself with a bunch of ruthless slavers, and depending on how things went she could either end up anywhere between batarian space or inside a turian prison... "I'll do it."

Kaiden immediately walked over to Shepard and grabbed her shoulders. "You can't Shepard..."

"I have to risk it." She brushed her concerned friend away. "Bray has offered to get me in but Alison Gunn getting captured by a nobody will not work... I guess we could coordinate it so that Wrex manages to capture Gunn and sell her to Bray but..." She glanced over to the krogan as he nodded. There was a lot riding on this... "Liara, go start forging papers for me and ensure that none of it is traceable back to the Alliance or Archangel."

Liara nodded in dismay as set began to get to work. "Yes, of course Shepard..." She wanted to protest, but when it came to overthrowing the current galactic oppression... she knew that sacrifices needed to be made and she wouldn't allow herself to stay naive.

Kaiden grumbled in an obviously unhappy manner. "Fine... just... contact Dr. Solus... if you get scanned for devices and implanted... he can ensure that you get another tracking device to ensure that we don't lose you..."

"Mordin Solus? The former STG operative now salarian doctor who opened up that clinic in this hellhole who treats anyone for free?" Wrex snorted. "Never knew you guys knew him... or that the Alliance had ties to him..."

"Heh...As Archangel, I've worked him several times. Though no one knows about it..." Shepard allowed herself a small smile. "I'll go see him to plan this op out... Wrex you talk to Bray and discuss how Alison Gunn is going to get herself captured by a certain krogan mercenary..."

* * *

The month had come and gone. Shepard's team along with Wrex, Mordin and Kasumi had done their part to ensure that this mission would proceed as smoothly as possible. Hackett had authorized the usage of the Normandy, and everything seemed in order. The commander was now sitting with her crew alont with Wrex, Kasumi and Joker in the mess hall eating.

"Just so you know... and for the record Commander, this is a terrible idea." Joker folded his arms as he frowned. "A TERRIBLE idea."

Shepard nodded in agreement. "I know it is... but this is our best chance to get closer to slightly closer to the turians... maybe I'll be able to make contact or whoever on the resistance's side will contact me...but our priority is finding Anderson and Kasumi's greybox..." Her voice quietly drifted off as Kasumi bit her lip.

"Look Shepard, you shouldn't be going in... we... and the Alliance need you..." Kaiden sighed. Shepard knew that he thought this was suicide. "Anderson's been as much of a mentor to both me and Ash as he was to you..."

"I should be doing this..." Ashley interjected with a pained expression. "this was my idea Shepard..."

"I know but I'm the infiltrator, and we can't send in Kasumi since the turians are after her greybox...don't worry about it Ash..." Shepard smiled weakly. "These are bad and desperate measures we have to be willing to take... and besides, I need my team to stay alive on Omega so _Archangel_ doesn't seem to have gone missing...that means either you or Liara will have to polish up your god-awful sniping skills...cause I don't think Jack will even touch a sniper rifle..."

Archangel's team stood at attention as they saluted their leader. "Good luck, Commander." Shepard smiled as she returned the and proceeded out of their base with Wrex.

* * *

Garrus had spent a month investigating and observing Archangel as many times as he could, and studying Alison Gunn's movements and behaviour around the station. Both woman seemed to know that they were under observation every time they were in the open. He also thought of various methods to be used against the two but he knew that if it came down to it, he'd lose against Archangel as she operated with a deadly group of individuals who she was the leader of. Alison Gunn however, was a different story. She moved alone, knew how to hide herself on Omega, and hardly drew attention to herself - which was hardly any despite being one of the very few humans who made regular appearances on the station, so it came to a surprise when he found out that Aria's right hand had placed an enormous bounty on her, and even more so to learn that Urdnot Wrex had taken the job... and was now in Afterlife talking to the batarian after the bounty had been put up, not even a day ago.

He watched silently, keen on observing every moment of the conversation between the krogan talking to Bray. He knew of Wrex's reputation. The krogan was known to get the job done for the right amount of credits and was currently handing receiving credits from the batarian and handing him a datapad. He shifted forward in his seat to he could hear the conversation the two were having...

"...My thanks Wrex... Just because Aria approves of Alison Gunn, doesn't mean that I need to..." Garrus knew that Bray had ties to the Hegemony so it was possible that he had been paid to hired someone to capture Gunn...

"Yea, yea... just give me my credits. If that woman comes out of it soon... I'm not really wanting to stick around for once..." The krogan rubbed his arm slightly. "She's got a damn quad and hell's going to break lose if she isn't kept out of it...anyway I think she's going to be out for about another hour so I suggest that you hurry up so and go sedate her again, but that's not my problem anymore... "

The batarian nodded and headed the krogan his credits. After the krogan had left, Garrus watched as he examined the datapad he had been handed and muttered to himself. "She's now registered as a slave in Citadel space... wonder how the hell the krogan pulled that off...probably their asari... well as long as she's off Omega, Balak will finally be off my back..."

At this point, Garrus paid the dancer and walked over to Bray. It was a known fact that Balak was one of the most respected members of the batarian military, and he had a deep hatred for humans, so it was no surprise that he was labelled as a terrorist and slaver by humans... "Wrex captured Alison Gunn?" He had positioned himself so that he was in Bray's way.

"What's it to you turian?" All four of the batarian's eyes narrowed as he spoke in a gruff voice. "I already have guys lining up already to buy her. She hasn't really made any friends on Omega by being Archangel's middleman...and I need to go sedate her now until the auction which you already know about."

Garrus wanted to take the batarian outside and interrogate him but he knew better than to mess with one of Aria's... His eyes narrowed slightly. "Then you should know that I need to ask her a few questions about Archangel."

"If you really want wanna see her, show up at the auction early and drop my name at the door, Vakarian... They'll let you in..." Bray tilted his head over slightly to the right. "Whether or not she'll speak with you or if you can afford to have her go with you is a completely different matter though."

The batarian snickered as he left Afterlife, leaving the the turian slightly annoyed were he stood. He would most definitely need credits to get the information he wanted... and it would probably involve buying its owner...

* * *

well thats chapter 2... going to attempt sleeping now...


	3. Chapter 3

Well... I haven't update anything in a while... between Fan expo and school starting... I've been fairly occupied... going to be on rez first year... so I'll see what that does to my schedule of everything...

* * *

Chapter 3: Inside Job(s)

Shepard hated the plan. It was extremely risky and it was definitely on top of her "I'm never going to do this again" list. She remembered when Wrex injected her with just enough sedative to knock her out so that her transports wouldn't be suspicious, and she had dutifully nodded when he asked if she was okay with it. The whole idea of having a well-known krogan mercenary sell her to a batarian who worked for Aria sounded like just one of the billions of stories that occurred daily in the Terminus Systems. Now, she was wearing barely any clothes and was now slumped in a cage that was taking her to auction. She was forcing herself to stay awake, trying to observe her surroundings, but the drugs in her system were going to overpower her immune system soon...

When she arrived, Shepard could barely make out anything but the bright lights that clouded her vision as she felt someone push her against a cold wall and lift her arms up in the air. Cool metal circled her wrists and her feet were barely touching the ground. The guards had sealed off the exit with a transparent screen so that she was on display. She vaguely recalled Bray's "what happens to you when you enter an auction as a slave"guide. People were usually placed in glorified display cases so that potential customers could take a look at the auctioneers' goods and would be informed if someone had an interest in purchasing them if they were "lucky." Others who weren't bought were usually taken back to whatever prison they had before being brought to auctions...but that hardly happened to the mercenaries who someone still a bullet or two. All she had to do was recognize her mysterious stalker. He would be able to identify her but there was always the off chance that someone else could bid on her... but her team would make sure that they'd be permanently removed.

She chuckled softly at the thought. She understood how someone usually killed if they refused to back off from someone's desired prospect - but it had hardly mattered to her as Archangel would always end up cleaning house. This time would be different though... everyone but her would get away. Shepard let herself drift off as she reinforced the thought.

* * *

"Commander Shepard." A soothing voice awoke her and immediately instilled her with alarm. Her arms were heavy and her barely reaching the floor toes struggling to support her only added to her discomfort. She hadn't realized she was in a cell for two as her eyes darted to the right and found a drell, sitting calmly with his hands behind his back - most likely cuffed. She could hear guards nearby and they'd probably be making their rounds to check that everyone was still alive... and sedate any who would be uncooperative, which she planned on being.

"Don't ever call me that," she whispered in a sharp but careful tone. He knew who she was... and it was imperative that Shepard remained a ghost to the universe.

"I apologize... Miss Gunn, but I needed to be sure that I was talking to the genuine article."

"I assure you... I am." She examined the drell as best as she could from her uncomfortable position. He certainly looked capable enough... "I assume you're Mordin's inside help?"

He silently nodded. "Indeed, my name is Thane... Dr. Solus had contacted me when he learned that Archangel required a capable sniper, and as an assassin, I happened to excel at the art..." He saw Shepard swallow silently. It wasn't everyday that someone shared a cell with an assasin, but he continued unfazed. "When I learned of your identity I volunteered for the task since you have done me a great service."

Shepard made it a necessary habit to remember the faces and names that she had helped in the past... You never knew when you'd need help hiding from some off-duty cop who took the law into their own hands, and this drell was not ringing any bells. "I... did something for you...? And you figured out who I was?" She frowned at that. She was sure to have taken all precautions to prevent someone from learning who she was, and even moved slightly differently when she was "acting,"but drell had perfect memories, and an assassin would have been trained to study a target's mannerisms and movements.

"Yes, you killed the slavers who murdered my wife... They struck at her when they learned of who I was...I was tracking them down when I encountered you disposing of them." He shook his head as he cleared his throat. "But that is not important. I wanted this assignment though my current situation right now is of my own doing."

"Your current situation meaning ending up in this cell? Though I assume you made your own arrangements to join up with my team?"

The drell nodded and examined her form with his obsidian eyes. "I required to speak to you before your mission took place. The hanar have not approved of the actions of the batarians, even less now since they have demanded for the Prothean artifacts and for access to the ruins on Kahje."

"Protheans...? How did they even fit into this mess?" She frowned. It had always struck her as odd as Liara the Prothean expert had been targeted...especially since her mother was supposedly some high-ranking matriarch...though it didn't matter to her at the time when the ruins were collapsing on top of them.

"I do not know but our time is short. The guards will be returning and the professor has informed me that the tracking device he intends to instal in you will not trigger suspicion as long as its signal is masked by another source... such as those control devices and chips..." Thane's voice drifted off slightly, as Shepard 's expression darkened. Aria had given the batarians her condition of ensuring that all their merchandise when sold would be implanted with a control device of some sort to ensure that it would be their problem if they lost control of the slaves if some "unfortunate" accident were to occur. Because of that, they agreed to enter a business partnership with Mordin. He'd supply the implants needed and would install them, additionally as a known ex-STG operative, they wouldn't question his expertise when it came to the instillation. "Your team will be able to track your movements so long as you are in range..."

"So... on top of finding the location of a missing marine and a greybox... you're basically asking to see what I can find out what the batarians want with the Prothean stuff?"

"Yes."

"This device the professor was working on will work even with the... implant?"

"Yes."

"Okay then... but I have a request... or two, Thane."

"Name them."

"Once I'm off the station, eliminate all of Alison Gunn's bidders who aren't in the auction area... After Aria's time limit is off... make sure that you and my team take out the remainder and help the other... victims. Archangel can't afford to leave any loose ends before she goes hunting for one of her... crewmates, if you will."

"Understood."

Shepard wanted to ask more, but Thane cut her off with the shake of his head. Their guards were back...

* * *

Garrus walked around restlessly around the corridors of Omega. He slightly annoyed that a krogan had managed to catch the woman he had been trying to confront himself. He had dropped Bray's name to be allowed into the auction and had examined all the merchandise. It was fairly awful. Those who were conscious enough were either begging to have themselves purchased, or had simply accepted their own fates. He may have a distaste for what was done there, but you could get away with anything on Omega as long as Aria allowed it... and he didn't really have any feelings beyond that. The law was the law in Council space, and this was allowed by the law as long as all merchandise and sellers were registered. The hellhole he was looking at had its fair share of unruly guests were under sedation. Most of them were mildly conscious, but seemed feral... all but Alison Gunn. She had this look of defiance in her drugged eyes...

It still baffled him to no end how the vigilante's operative openly walked around with the symbol of the elusive prize herself branded to her arm in the Terminus systems... and she still managed to avoid having any sort of criminal record or even a red flag attached to her name within Council space. She had made Omega an extremely risky location for any potential business ventures, and she had already gotten rid of the larger portion of the criminal elements on the station. "Alison Gunn..." The woman's eyelids barely fluttered to acknowledge his presence when he was given access to examine her. She hardly moved when his talons touched her face. Even though she was restrained, he could feel the strength and will emanating from her body. She would not give up anything without a fight...and her being drugged also suggested that she would not work with him, but against him...

There was quite a large list of buyers lining up for the vigilante's outside link, which included a number of some of the worst scum of the galaxy. Most were slavers who had a connection to someone the vigilante had taken out, mercenaries who took the wrong job and were left alive to tell the tale, and crime lords who either wanted Archangel dead or as their muscle. The highest bid at the moment was 30,000 credits along with a new fancy gun mod. This was going to be a long and annoying wait. There were still 4 hours left in the day and Garrus wanted Gunn off the station so that he wouldn't be around in the likely bloodbath that most likely occur at the end of the auction... and half of the bidders had already experienced their share of "unfortunate accidents."

Spirits, he hated the idea of procuring someone, but knew this was his only option to even come close to Archangel, and he was not going to let his best chance on account of credits. He couldn't risk Gunn falling off the grid forever or dying... and certainly not losing all chances of finding Archangel. He pulled out his Omni-tool and submitted a bid. If there were no other bids in the next few hours... Gunn would be his... so long as Bray decided that there was no chance of a higher bid being submitted, and with the number he put in, he sincerely doubted that the batarian would be able to obtain even more credits...

* * *

Shepard found a wry smile forming across her face as her eyes shut despite being strapped to an operating table. Bray had told her that someone had placed a 250,000 credit bid on her, and it was, of course, from her turian stalker. She of course had told him to accept the bid. The sooner this was over, the faster she'd be off the god-forsaken station, and the Alliance would be 250,000 credits richer. Those credits would be used for the Alliance ships... ships that were being prepped for war... and even Aria had her fleet doing the same. Hackett had told her. Survival and freedom from oppression relied on her success… Though she would have to be extremely careful. Mordin was currently installing the tech that could potentially save and kill her depending on how she behaved…

The whole idea of having a control device in her head bothered her. Most people did not take kindly to having a device planted into them, much less one that could instill pain unless orders were obeyed… the only good thing about this device was that it couldn't force someone into speaking, not that it mattered. She'd never give up her identity as Archangel, though she was slightly curious about what her turian owner would do in order to encourage her to give up any information about her dual identity…

* * *

Alison Gunn was off Omega shortly after Mordin declared that it was all right for her to move around once Bray had confirmed the transfer of credits into his account. She had to be kept under the doctor's observation and under sedation after her procedure for a couple of hours, which according to the doctor was to ensure that there were no implant rejections or issues that occurred. Garrus spent most of that time deciding on which course to take through the relay and going over his agenda.

After they left the station, he started to read the reports coming in from Omega. The turian mused slightly to himself. Once he had taken Gunn, there was an immediate drop in the number of criminals still drawing breath on the station who weren't in the auction area supposedly. Archangel wouldn't be able come after him until the auction was over, and she would never let those who were in her sights get away, regardless of the other distractions, so he had plenty of time to get away, but he really wanted her to follow.

His ship came equipped for nearly every type of mission that a high ranking C-Sec officer and Blackwatch operative could have ever have, so it was nearly fully automated. It was a fairly large ship for just once turian. There was a small room for equipped for combat simulations, a brig, a fully stocked med-bay and he had his own private quarters. Garrus had placed Gunn on the cot in the brig, though he did take the precaution of cuffing her wrists behind her back. She had proven to be resourceful before, though she didn't really have escape as an option once he had locked in a course in navigation unless he overrode it. His ship was about 4-6 hours away from the relay- depending on the solar winds, when the ship VI alerted him that his guest was stirring. Sighing, he shut off his omni-tool and headed down to the brig to greet his new detainee when she awoke.

* * *

K so i sorta rushed this... tell me if there any glaring errors that i need to go fix when I have the time... and if ur reading anything else I have, i'll try to update when i can...


	4. Chapter 4

disclaimer:iwishiownedmasseffectbutidon'tso...yea! biowareowns all!

* * *

Chapter Four: The Encounter

Shepard woke up with start. She didn't recognize the foreign environment. A white wall was in front of her and she could feel bedding underneath her. Cool metal was encircling her wrists, and that immediately set of an alarm. Someone was touching the side of her neck... and she was loosely clothed. Instinctively, she turned over to face the intruder. Her leg swung into the air as she turned and she had aimed it so that her foot would connect to her assailant's face or neck depending on their height. She heard a grunt as her body made contact and lunged herself in the same direction as best as she could, after hearing the person's body hit the ground. Whoever she hit wasn't human...

The sight of the turian took Shepard out of her daze. Her right foot was positioned underneath his mandibles and was directly against his neck almost as if it were a knife. Mordin had administered too many drugs if it took her more than a short moment to recollect herself. She'd have to remember that for future reference. She was sitting on top of his upper body armor in addition to one of his arms. She was definitely her stalker with the blue eyes, armour, visor... and clan markings... Her brow twitched slightly. She may have seen them at one other time...

"Alison Gunn…" The turian seemed to be trying to keep his voice as level as possible. It made sense though. Turians were viewed as vicious predators... especially to humans because of the First Contact War and their part in the batarians' rise to power. Humanity was driven from whatever corner of the galaxy back into Systems Alliance space... or the Terminus depending on how lucky were. Turian members of Citadel law enforcement also tended to come across as violent whenever they were working with non-Council species. Still Shepard found it slightly interesting how a member of a species of apex predators presented himself. He made no move to resist her and seemed to be analyzing her positioning and stance.

"So I'm called…" She shifted her arms as she got up and moved her foot away from his face. She turned around and paused for a moment to examine her surroundings. Okay so it was a small white cell... with a manual lock on the outside. Given time she'd be able to pick the lock but she'd needed an Omni-tool... or an extravagant amount of time. She turned back to face the turian and sat uncomfortably on the small bed she had been provided. The cuffs were not helping... and neither was her lack of armour and weaponry. She hated being unarmed and without her omni-tool... though she did have her tech implants though they'd be useless in a situation like this. She watched her captor with a mix of caution and curiosity.

"I guess the rumours about your combat expertise were right..." He helped himself up then proceeded to lean against the wall behind him a short distance away from her. It did help that he wasn't getting in her face and giving her ample space.

"And that would make you Archangel's stalker… Should have guessed it was C-sec…" Shepard knew she sounded anything but surprised, and was slightly amused if anything…

"You know who I am then?" His face might have shown he was either slightly confused or annoyed at her behaviour. She had a hard time reading turians... mainly because most of her encounters with them involved shooting... and there weren't many turians she had helped in the past... though she did have experience working worth a female turian before.

"I know enough…" She took note of how he had a visor and frowned slightly. If it was anything like her own visor, it would monitor her vital signs - and most importantly her heartbeat. She'd have to be careful about what she talked about... "So what exactly did you want with Archangel? It's not like Wrex told me anything when he confronted me… though I understand it's not personal."

His mandibles twitched. He probably didn't expect an ally... or an acquaintance of hers to bring her in for any reward going off what he knew about Archangel. She was rumoured to have one of the most loyal crew in the entire galaxy... though he probably wasn't sure about one of Archangel's operative who actually had a face that the army of Archangel haters could identify. "You know Wrex? And before he was hired to capture you?"

"Yes and yes." He seemed to be waiting for her to continue, but she contented herself with leaving him hanging. The last thing she wanted to do was to give him any _real _information... She had absolutely no desire to show her hand... but she needed to distract him if she was going to get out of the cuffs, and the best way to do was to talk. If she was wearing C-sec cuffs they'd be nearly impossible to open without an Omni-tool and without her actually seeing them, but if these weren't and were either made in the Terminus or one of the Blackwatch's, she'd be able to open them giving time.

"So how do you know him?"

"Business associate. Professional relationship."

"By that you mean yours… or Archangel's?"

"What do you care? I maintain discreet relationships with Archangel's associates and I know them by whatever they wish to be known as. Wrex just wanted Archangel's assistance with something, though we have fought on more than one occasion."

"What? Wrex hired Archangel?"

"Not really...? I meant he had a business proposition that benefitted both parties...though he was hired for something else."

"The Korlus facility..." The turian had raised his talons to his chin as she continued talking. He appeared to be deep in thought as he spoke. "Did Archangel even know that the krogan warlord on Korlus was under Spectre Saren Arterius' protection?"

"Yes she did..." She immediately felt herself go defensive at the mentioning of Saren's name. Shepard had several experiences and encounters with the turian before she was deemed too dangerous to be allowed to live and fell of the galaxy map. None of them were good.

"What about his research on the genophage?"

"Is that what they told you?" Shepard's eyes narrowed. "I suppose ignorance truly is bliss...Though I doubt that a spectre would actually tell you about what was going on down there..." He evidently, didn't know what she was talking about. "That warlord... O-whatever is name was, wasn't looking for a cure for the genophage. He was breeding an army of krogan for Saren." Her voice took on a harsh tone as she continued. "He had kidnapped a bunch of female krogan and experimented on them. They weren't given a choice when they were kidnapped from Tuchanka... and she didn't give him the opportunity to explain his actions."

"Did Wrex tell you that...?" The turian really did seemed disturbed by this information... though Shepard couldn't care less. She already had other problems to deal with and getting involved with anything else just meant more work for her in the long run.

"Let's just leave it at: Archangel has her ways... and what she saw there... completely justified Wrex's wanting the warlord dead. Though his case did help her in making her final decision." Shepard found herself getting angrier as she continued and had barely registered the faint click behind her. Guess they weren't C-sec cuffs... she still needed a bit more time though. "Why would you care?"

If this turian didn't know anything about it that either meant that Saren had even more control in Citadel Space than what she was comfortable with... or that the censoring of information had dramatically increased since she had left... "To gain insight on why Archangel is doing what she's doing."

"For what? So you can get her a reduced sentence or something?" Over half of the military and Council operatives who dared to venture into the Terminus to seek an audience with her as Gunn offered her a reward of some kind for her cooperation. They didn't care that Archangel had actually reduced the amount of crime in the Terminus, and in turn reduced it in Council space. They just wanted her dead because they were a nuisance to the batarians with the giant death weapon...though half of them did mention that Archangel wouldn't be killed, just explicitly tortured. Ironically, Shepard was in a very safe situation given her circumstances. Alison Gunn had absolutely no criminal record and only worked in the Terminus, so she'd be safe from whatever he wanted to persecute Archangel with. "What do you see Archangel as?"

"Why?"

"To gain insight on why you're trying to capture her... and because I'm getting the feeling that either you don't exactly see anything beyond the slander about her on the extranet... and don't really know why she goes doing what she does... and I'd like to know that before I go wasting my breath on someone pursing her for the wrong reasons...or for none at all." She had mimicked the tone that he had used against her. He was serious about catching Archangel... Though it would be enlightening to see what this off-duty officer thought of her dual identity, unlike those who saw her as a nuisance to their masters.

"Hmph." He wanted to learn everything about... well... her, but she needed to learn more about him if she was going to somehow manipulate him in the future. Her earlier comment was designed to at least get some emotion out of him... "I know that Archangel has killed hundreds across the galaxy... and her victims range from mercenaries to slavers... to politicians... She's an extremely dangerous individual... and is meticulous with whatever she does and never seems to let any of her targets go... though that doesn't matter. I'm going to bring her to justice."

Shepard found herself trying to unsuccessfully constrain her laughter. "Exactly who's justice would you be talking about?" His comment prompted her to think about what she thought of when she first started being Archangel. She knew the people she had once respected would call her a criminal, but as long as she remembered why she was doing what she was doing, it did not matter. "Whatever pathetic justice you attempt to enforce isn't worth mentioning." He was glaring at her now. "It's true that she leaves no stone unturned and always gets her job done... but your injustice is _her justice_... and believe me, she's not one to let injustice go unpunished." There was another faint click as she was talking and sneered. "It's no wonder why the legendary Officer Vakarian resigned."

"What?!" Well, Shepard was able to get a large reaction out of him. She didn't know his captor's name, let alone if those were the right clan markings... "You knew my father?"

"Your father?" Okay she wasn't expecting that. She just recognized his markings since they were similar to a turian who refused to remain silent when the Council turned against humanity because of the batarians... someone who refused to stand idle... and someone who refused to accept that act of injustice... "By name... though I did get the chance to work with him once... though that was a lifetime ago. Well it's hardly a surprise that he did what he did." Shepard carefully stood up and took a few steps in the turian's direction. "He couldn't stand the sight of the honourable turians of the Hierarchy doing the dirty work of scum simply because they had a weapon greater than theirs..."

The turian glared and walked towards her so that the two were face to face. His hand was on his Omni-tool. "I'd be very careful about what you plan on saying human." He was definitely angry with her.

Shepard snorted as she pulled off the cuffs from behind her and threw them into the turian's face and lunged towards him as he flinched. They slammed into the wall. Her hands were grabbing his to make sure he couldn't reach his Omni-tool. They struggled for a bit, but it was obvious that Shepard was going to lose when it came to strength, so she proceeded to head butt him with enough force to send a krogan onto his hump. "Guess you don't know about how he contacted me." She flung her hair over her shoulder after she released her grip on him and turned away. That comment had literally made him drop his jaw. Shrugging her shoulders, Shepard resumed her seat at the edge of her bed. "He actually viewed Archangel as a freedom fighter of sorts... he's someone who actually understands why she's been viewed as a saviour to half of the people she's ever had in contact with in the Terminus..."

She watched the turian rub where her forehead had slammed onto his plates after he had picked up her cuffs. "And the other half?"

"The either dead or they don't know that they're dead half. You do know there is no law enforcement in the Terminus? The only reason why crime has decreased there and even on Omega, was because of her. She rubbed her wrists slightly to distract herself. She had revealed information that only her team had been privy to for many reasons.. If this truly was the famed C-sec's officer's son than she shouldn't have to worry _that_ much about him babbling to someone about her encounter. "Though he just happened to be at Afterlife when I was...and we talked..." Shepard turned her attention back to the turian. It looked like he was having a hard time accepting her words. "He doesn't approve of how Archangel goes about doing her business... though he does... in a way, approve of why she does what she does."

"That's impossible. My father always did things the right way. He followed the law and he arrested countless criminals doing that." It was evident that he was having a hard time accepting her words, but his talons never came away from his Omni-tool.

"So I was told... but what do you do when the law changes so much that you condone the acts of criminals...? I mean he even told me about his disproval for having slaves." Shepard's eyes glanced purposefully at his Omni-tool, which he was gripping. Probably because he hadn't expected her little stunt.

"I prefer the term "indentured servants,"" he mumbled out softly. His browplates rose a bit when she let out a small snort.

"Whatever keeps your conscious somewhat clean _master__._" Her sarcasm was not upon him as he let out a small growl. She shrugged. "Well you should be glad to know I refuse to call you that... though I also refuse to refer to you with the name of someone I actually respect...so I'm unfortunately going to need a name... "

He let out a sigh as he headed towards the door. This encounter was probably anything but what he had expected... and her lack of respect put a large dampener on their non-existent relationship. "I'm Garrus... Garrus Vakarian."

* * *

Garrus was annoyed. His encounter with Gunn hadn't gone how he wanted, and he was slightly pissed about how she nearly always spoke to him in a somewhat mocking tone. He had learned a few things so it wasn't a complete waste of time, though he hadn't expected her to kick him off his feet, much less head butt him... but the information she did give disturbed him. It was true he didn't have a lot of information about Korlus, but he had never even heard of missing female krogan. It made sense for Wrex to want Okeer dead for the reasons she had given... but was Okeer really breeding an army of krogan for Saren? He frowned. His instincts were saying that she was telling the truth. It was a given that Saren's actions were classified since he was a Spectre, so there would be no way to actually figure out if Gunn was telling the truth but her heart rate hadn't changed at all until she had gotten angry. She also didn't have copy of the stolen data that could prove what she was saying, nor did she have the means to obtain it... and he had forgotten to ask about what else was stolen from the facility.

He grumbled as he made his way into the ship's cockpit and opened up the galaxy map. His ship had made the successful jump from the Omega Nebula to the Hawkwing Eta, and was currently on its way to refuel. While he waited for the ship to reach to fuel depot, he plotted a course in the ship's navigation to the Exodus Cluster which prompted a travel advisory alert from the ship VI. It was generally considered unwise to enter one of the few remaining clusters that belonged to Systems Alliance space. Human space was monitored and patrolled by the Terra Firma Protection and they did not take kindly to Council species entering their space, much less C-sec officers, though they were more lenient with military operatives depending on what businesses they needed to conduct. The Exodus Cluster in particular was one of the more heavily guarded sectors as one of its systems - Utopia, included a mass relay as well as one of the few levo-based garden worlds that maintained some trade relationships with the Citadel.

Upon acquiring Gunn, Garrus made a point to acquire levo-foods to ensure that she'd be functional. He was however, seriously rethinking that priority. He was still bothered about how a human - and a fairly elusive one at that, knew about why her father had resigned. It was all over the news when he had but he had confided his reasons to an extremely small amount of people that he could literally count using all the talons of his hands. Alison Gunn had met his father at one point and he approved of why Archangel was committing acts of assassination, sabotage, and what could be called terrorism at times... For what reason?

He sighed again as he made his way to his quarters. His room was fairly spacious and it had room for his bed, a small desk area and a bar. The ship would alert him when they reached the fuel depot. He made his way over to his desk and slumped into his seat then proceeded to activate his Omni-tool. "Nihlus, do you have a minute?"

"Garrus! Are you all right? You sound exhausted..."

"You could say that... Omega was... interesting... I picked someone up with a connection to Archangel though I doubt she's going to give up any information without a fight."

"Oh?"

"She head butted me and she kicked me after she woke up."

"Sounds like an unruly woman... Have you worked out a deal with her yet to reduce her sentence?"

Garrus sighed. Nihlus probably assumed that he meant he caught a criminal. "I can't. She doesn't have a record and well... I meant the literal acquisition of someone."

"Really Vakarian? You purchased someone? Your father won't like that..."

"I know but... what else was I supposed to do?" He grumbled softly. "She's the only one who can lead me to Archangel and she may have been one of the humans who attacked Saren's Korlus facility."

Garrus heard the faint sound of what he thought may have been Nihlus slamming his hand into his plates. "You can't tell Saren about her then. He'll kill her just for being a human... and he probably won't even listen to what she has to offer."

"I know. Speaking of which... you don't happen to know anything about missing female krogan? She mentioned something about the disappearance of some and it may or may not be connected the facility that the team she's a member of blew up."

"I only heard about it in a rumour so I can't guarantee it... but supposedly they went missing a couple of months ago. It might explain why the krogan have been so divided though."

"Hm... thanks... that sheds some light a bit on what happened." Females were fiercely protected... so it gave him some insight on Wrex's decision to attack Okeer. And on why Gunn was so angry, but it still wasn't enough to prove that she was telling the truth at all. If anything, it at least revealed what type of incidents he could use to lure out Archangel...or at least figure out more of the truth. Gunn's little speech of justice had wormed its way into his head, but he was determined that he'd simply go and prove her wrong.

"Where are you headed now? I thought you were headed back to wrap up some cases on the Citadel... but there's a chance you might get recalled to Palaven..." It sounded like Nihlus was holding back something. Probably because he was a privy to certain information because his spectre status...

"Human system... Exodus Cluster. Utopia..." He fumbled with one of the data pads on the desk and checked the map. "Picking up supplies at a planet called Eden Prime... then I should be free with whatever I might be needed for."

"Well at least you're a Blackwatch operative... so they shouldn't mind much... Remember not to overstep your boundaries. We don't need another cross-species incident."

"I know..." He hesitated a moment to debate whether or not he should tell Nihlus about the conversation he had with Gunn "I got something to ask you about later... preferably in person..." The ship's VI was telling him that they were proceeding back to the relay and that the ship had successfully refueled.

"Sure. I'll talk to you later, Garrus." With that, Garrus's comm link on his Omni-tool died. He had hardly started looking over the procedure on entering human space for a few minutes when his door opened and revealed a human holding one of his pistols pointed at him.

* * *

His hands immediately went to his Omni-tool. "Gunn, what are you doing?" Her expression was dark and her eyes had narrowed in on his tool. She looked like she was hesitating to even start a conversation with him. Reluctantly he raised his a moved arm away from his tool, pulled up a chair and gestured for her to sit. She stared at him blankly for a few moments and eventually decided to walk over and sat down, but her fingers never left the gun's trigger.

"My... apologizes for eavesdropping, but I needed to know exactly the type of turian I'd need to work with.." She drew a long breath as she rested the pistol against the table, though it was still pointing at him. "Especially if you're in league with Spectre Arterius."

Garrus felt his mandibles twitch. He could hear the hatred in her voice. "I'm not in league with Saren. I was investigating cases linked to your boss when I got tasked with dealing with the Korlus facility which happened to be Saren's protection."

She considered his words for a moment, and he noticed her grip on the pistol relaxed ever so slightly. "Maybe... you do seem too... good to be working with him..."

"Good? What do you mean by that?"

"Too... bound by the law... in some ways... and.. you never even activated that chip that was implanted..." Her eyes lowered for a moment as her free hand traced the back of her neck slowly. "Which might mean that you're one of the few decent C-Sec officers... or you're simply one who's focused on the end target... Though I can guarantee that I'd die before telling you anything about her and her comrades..." Gunn revealed a sad smile. She would hold true to her word if it came down to it...

"At least tell me why she does...what she does...or at least about why you follow her."

"If you want me to even consider that... at least give me an Omni-tool if you insist on leaving me in the brig...It's as boring as hell staring at a wall all day. "She paused a moment as she pursed her lips. "Exactly where are we going?"

"Systems Alliance Space. Utopia. Garden world. Eden Prime." Her heard skipped a beat at the mentioning of the system. Was she expecting something there? Or was it just because he planned on going to one of the more heavily patrolled sectors of human space.

"Tell you what... depending on how well you go about your business in the name of you so-called justice... I might consider telling you I support Archangel's crusade on crime..."

"Might consider? That's not exactly reassuring." He needed her word that she'd follow through... despite how easily it could be broken, Alison Gunn did not have a reputation for backstabbing someone, much less lying. "I've got a spare Omni-tool you can use..."

The woman tossed the pistol back over to him and sighed. "Fine, I promise to tell you depending on how well this goes." Garrus nodded and offered her hand out to him. Perhaps it was a little strange to use such a human custom, but her expression tensed as they shook hands. Alison Gunn didn't seem to think of it as an opportunity to actually observe him or learn of how he did things like he expected her to. She looked like she expected something bad to happen...

* * *

Blausen: I edited that out and omg I cant believe I missed that... well it was 3 in the morning but still lol ty.


End file.
